INDIANAPOLIS (Indiana), April 5: Michael Phelps felt his 100m butterfly victory at USA Swimming’s spring championships was a bit of a failure, even if it did make him the first male swimmer to win titles in three different strokes at a US national meet.

Phelps, who holds the 200m fly and 400m individual medley world records, has been branching out this week, capturing the 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke titles. He followed in the footsteps of Natalie Coughlin, who won titles in three different strokes at one national championships last year.

But Phelps had hoped to eclipse Australian Michael Klim’s 100m fly world record of 51.81sec. Instead the 17-year-old finished one-hundredth of a second outside his own American record with a time of 51.89sec.

Phelps, who finished in front of Japan’s Takashi Yamamoto (52.94), said technical mistakes cost him.

At least he’ll get a chance to correct those mistakes in Sunday’s USA v Australia Duel in the Pool, and he said he intends to.

In contrast to Phelps, Misty Hyman couldn’t have been happier with her victory in the women’s 100m fly. Battling back from shoulder surgery in August of 2001, Hyman was happy earlier in the week with her eighth place in the 200m fly, and astonished with her win in the 100m.

Another 2000 Olympic gold medallist, Lenny Krayzelburg, pronounced himself satisfied with his victory in the 100m backstroke in 54.26sec.

Ed Moses added the 100m breaststroke title to the 200m crown he claimed on Wednesday. As in the 200m, he couldn’t sustain his early sub-world record pace, but he did improve his American record to 1:00.21.—AFP